Percy Jackson and the Stolen Car Keys
by Chikni Chameli The Second
Summary: This story has been discontinued. For those interested in continuing it, please read what has already been written and PM me. Note :- This story is Hindu mythology based. Thank you.
1. Apollo Loses His Car Keys

I woke up to some knocking on my door. It was dark, which was weird - I thought I'd slept for quite long already. The knocking turned into banging, so I threw off the covers and went to get the door. It was Annabeth. She looked worried, which is never a good sign.

"Annabeth? What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

"Hi, Percy. And it isn't the middle of the night. It's nine in the morning."

I went inside and glanced at my alarm clock on the nightstand. Sure enough, it read 9:02 a.m. Oo...kay... It was nine in the morning and it was dark. Then it occurred why. I went back to the door. Annabeth's eyes and mouth were wide open. And she was blushing. I looked down and realised why - I was wearing only my boxers. I blushed, ran inside, hastily put some clothes on and ran back outside.

"Something's wrong with Apollo," I guessed.

"Uh, y-yeah." Annabeth was STAMMERING? Then she seemed to recover. "So Chiron's calling a meeting of the head-counselors."

When we got to the Big House, everyone had gathered around the ping-pong table. Michael Yew, head-counselor of the Apollo cabin, seemed really pissed. He was yelling at Clarisse, "Can you SHUT UP and be a LITTLE serious about this? The keys are lost and you're bickering with someone about something as lame as TOILET PRIVILEGES? Are you KIDDING me?"

The scene was hilarious. I mean, Clarisse, daughter of Ares and the biggest bully at Camp, was being yelled at by Michael Yew, who was barely above a metre tall? I busted up. Everyone shot me weird looks and Annabeth nudged me. That was when I realised how serious the situation was.

"Good morning, guys! Er, or is it still good night?" Gods, I was feeling like an idiot. "Anyhow, what's up with stolen keys?"

Clarisse snickered. "Really fast, aren't ya?"

"Apollo's car keys are stolen, Percy," Chiron said.

What? Apollo's car keys stolen? No way! I could DIE to drive that sweet Maserati.

"And now the question of dispute is," Travis Stoll said.

"If we should send someone on a quest," Connor Stoll continued.

"And if yes, who," Travis finished.

"Jeez! Cut that out, you two! It's annoying!" Katie Gardner complained, "Either you talk, Travis, or Connor talks."

"It shouldn't be a question of dispute at all," Michael said, refusing to get distracted, "The sun is very essential. No one here can deny that, right? So we need a quest to find the keys. And it's obvious that you need to send me and my cabin-mates 'cause we're the sons of Apollo."

"CHILDREN of Apollo," Silena Beauregard corrected.

"Whoa! Back up a sec" I said. "Can't Apollo just ask Hephaestus to make new keys and new lock or something?"

"It's not so easy, Percy," Beckendorf told me. "Apollo's car's security system is pretty darn good. If Dad so much as went near it, he'd either spontaneously combust or get blown away by the sound waves of some horrible music."

"Or the car would probably recite one of Apollo's haikus," Connor muttered, "The haiku would be so bad, Hephaestus would run away from horror."

"This is not the time for jokes, you numbskull!" Michael shouted.

"Guys!" Pollux snapped. "Shut up! I have a question. If Apollo's security system is that good, then who could steal the keys?"

"I don't know, my child," Chiron's eyes got a faraway look, "But the person is definitely more powerful than the gods."

"Of course we know!" I growled. "One of Kronos's nasty little scumbags."

"But which nasty little scumbag?" Pollux asked.

Annabeth and Chiron locked eyes like they knew who it could be. But, apparently, they didn't want to share it, so Annabeth changed the subject.

"I have another question," she said. "Can't Apollo just temporarily deactivate the security system, so that Hephaestus can change the lock and stuff?"

"No, my girl," Chiron said. "Right now, Apollo is too upset to do much other than mourn over his car and swear at the offender."

"So let me summarize," Katie said, "Apollo's car keys are stolen, New Delhi is getting scorched while New york might freeze - "

"What's New Daily?" Silena asked stupidly.

"New DELHI is the capital of India, you egghead," Katie snapped, and then resumed her summarization, "Apollo is too pissed to do anything helpful, though he CAN do something - "

"Now don't you blame Dad - "

"So now it's upto us to find the car keys, but for that Chiron needs to grant us a quest, which he isn't doing," Katie finished.

"I do want to grant a quest, dear," Chiron said, "but I don't think we should send Apollo's kids."

"Why not?" Michael asked, and we all muttered in agreement.

"After three thousand years of observation," Chiron said, "I am suspecting that the powers of Apollo's kids are linked to the sun and sunight. Just like how Percy's powers are linked to the sea."

"Of course!" Annabeth jumped in her chair, her eyes shining with excitement. "That would explain the theory of sunlight being a source of Vitamin D!"

"My theory is yet to be proved. But I don't want to take any risks."

And then a huge argument followed, Michael versus everyone else. Surprisingly, Michael finally gave in. "Fine... I guess I'll have to sacrifice some things for a greater cause."

"So who gets the quest?" I asked.

"You, Percy," Chiron said.

I was stunned. "Me? What? But why?"

"You are a son of one of the Big Three, are you not? You are the most powerful demigod in Camp."

"Oh. Okay, then."

"You get to take two other people with you."

"Shouldn't he consult the Oracle first?" Clarisse asked.

"Apollo is the god of the Oracles, Clarisse," Annabeth said like it was obvious, which it was. "And when Apollo is upset..."

"Oh. Right." Clarisse was BLUSHING?

"I choose Annabeth," I said. Annabeth was the best strategist in Camp (and my best friend). Silena oooh'd and Annabeth whacked her.

"Okay," Annabeth said.

"And I choose Beckendorf." Beckendorf was this really muscular guy and good fighter. Clarisse was a better fighter, but she acted too rashly. Plus, if we bump into one of Hephaestus's horrible inventions, Beckendorf could deactivate the thing in a second. When it comes to electronic monsters, Beckendorf is the guy you want.

"I'm in," he said.

"Very well, then," Chiron concluded the meeting. "The three of you shall leave at first light tomorrow. Erm... Excuse me, you shall leave in another twenty-one or twenty-two hours."

A/N :- Please review! This is my first fanfiction. Sorry if it isn't good.


	2. Our Pegasi Freak Out

**This chapter is crappier than the first one. Which doesn't say you shouldn't read it. So R&R! (And thanks, Rinnala!)**

The rest of the day was mostly normal. We went about our usual activities, except the outdoor ones like capture the flag. But since outdoor activities dominated our timetable, the day was dead boring. I practised swordplay with my friends, but they soon got bored of it. We were so jobless that we had to resort to something as lame as BOARD GAMES. You can imagine our plight. (All the same, the fact that I hate board games doesn't change the fact that I won the game of monopoly.)

I mostly hung out with the Stolls; Annabeth said she wanted to do some research and try to find out who could have stolen Apollo's carkeys. In other words, she just wanted to sit in her cabin and worry about the quest.

That night I dreamed that I was in a brightly lit temple. By the look of it, it must have been a South Indian temple. And in the middle of the room was a tall man with blonde hair, dressed in gold robes. There were three other people in the room - three breathtakingly beautiful women.

"Ugh! This room is so stuffy!" one of the women said. "I'm sweating my make-up right off! Eww... I'm _so_ going outside, Helios." The woman stalked out.

"I never thought this day would come, but I agree with Selene. Couldn't you find any other place?" another woman complained.

"I am sorry, my beloved Persa," the tall, blonde dude said."But this is the perfect location, given the situation. It is far from Olympus. And it is made of gold. What more could you want? Now, if you will excuse me, I have other matters to attend to."

With that, he left the room. My dream followed him. Like Helios had said, the outside _was_ made of gold. The whole temple was covered in pure gold. It was magnificent. And it was definitely a traditional South Indian temple. (Don't get too impressed. I happened to recognise the style of architecture because it was on the cover page of a book I'd bought for Annabeth - the book was about South Indian architecture.) What the Hades was Helios doing in South India?

He went inside another room, also brightly lit.

"Eosphoros! Hesperos!" he called. Two men, also blonde and dressed in gold robes, rushed in.

"Lord?" they said in unison.

"We need to talk strategy. I have stolen Apollo's car keys. What do you reckon ought to be my next move, my dear fellows?"

"You have stolen the keys, my lord. It should be a piece of cake to steal the car itself," one of the two men said.

The other man raised his hand hesitantly. "Er... But, my lord, you said you wanted more recognition. How do you intend to do that through stealing Apollo's car?"

Helios laughed. "My, my. You are quite foolish, are you not? If the Olympians really care for their Western Civilization, they will compromise. They will ask Apollo to give up on his sun duties and I will become the sun god. If they decide to remain their stubborn, stupid selves, they will wage war. And that will be the end of the Western Civilization. The war will destroy the world."

"I think your plan is ingenious, my lord. But how do you plan to steal his car?"

Helios laughed again.

That was when I was woken up by someone banging on my door. Talk about rotten luck. If _only_ the banging idiot had mercifully decided to give me another minute to sleep...

Anyhow, I went to get the door. It was Beckendorf.

"Hey, sleepybones. leavin' in another thirty minutes. Hurry up, man."

What? _THIRTY MINUTES?_ Thirty minutes weren't even _close_ to enough time for freshening up, packing my backpack for the quest and telling Chiron and Annabeth about my dream. (Whew! _That_ was a hefty list.)

"What?" I shouted."_Thirty minutes?_"

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Everything, man. Did you get a dream?"

"Of Silena," he sighed. "She was - "

"Okay, okay," I said. "Hey, do me a favour. Pack my backpack for me, will you?"

He looked past me, at my backpack on the floor by my wardrobe.

"Please, Becky?" I implored. I put on a puppy-dog face. (I still honestly can't believe that called Beckendorf_ Becky_ and played the _puppy-dog face_ card.)

"Becky?" he objected.

"Indorf. Beckindorf," I said in a false British accent.

"Okay," he agreed.

"Thanks." I rushed to the bathroom for a quick shower and stuff. When I came out, Beckendorf had finished packing. Annabeth entered my cabin at right exactly the same moment I came out of my bathroom.

And right exactly at that moment, when Annabeth was in the very vicinity, Beckendorf decided to inform me that he didn't know that I have Aquaman boxers.

Annabeth blinked. Then she busted up. _THAT _was when our dear Beckendorf's brain seemed to detect the presence of Annabeth in the room.

"Oh. Hi, Annie," he said.

Now it was _my_ turn to laugh. _Annie_? It _so_ didn't suit her - especially then, with that determined, hard look on her face that she usually had before leaving on quests.

Annabeth scowled. "Hey, _Charlie_," she retorted.

"Okay guys, quit bickering," I said. "Now, when do we leave?"

"In another twenty minutes," Annabeth told me.

"Great. Did you get any dreams?"

"Strangely, no."

"Where's Chiron?"

"Gods, Percy, you're bursting with questions today. Chiron's on his way to Thalia's tree to see us off."

"Perfect. Let's go."

Chiron beat us to Thalia's tree.

"Hello, children," Chiron greeted us. "Did you sleep well?"

"Listen," I said, ignoring Chiron's question. "I've got something to tell you."

I told them about my dream.

"South-Indian, you say?" Annabeth had already plugged her datacard into her laptop and was googling golden South-Indian temples.

"Yup," I answered. "And it was big for a building covered in gold."

"Was this the one?" Annabeth showed me a building.

"Nailed it."

"This is the Golden Temple of Sripuram," Annabeth said with awe. "The biggest golden structure in the world. Located in vellore City, Tamil Nadu."

"Okay," Beckendorf said. "But the question is, how do we get there?"

We all stared at him, smiling sweetly.

"What? Don't overestimate me. I know I'm brilliant, but I'm not brilliant enough to build a ride from _New York_ to _Wailer_"

"_Vellore_" Annabeth snapped indignantly.

"In, like, five minutes."

"My advice would be," said Chiron, "to fly to the West Coast on pegasi, and then sail on hippocampi to coastal Tamil Nadu, and then travel the rest of the journey to Vellore City on foot. Percy, pray to your father to deliver you across the ocean quickly but safely."

"This way, we'll be at Vellore in at least a week, give or take - two days by air, four on water, one on land. Sounds okay to me," Annabeth concluded.

"Four days?" I questioned incredulously. "Annabeth, the Pacific Ocean is huge."

"You're supposed to pray to your dad, remember?"

"Why would he help us?"

"Just try to convince him. From what I've gathered, your dad can _sometimes_ be pretty cool."

"I'm sorry, what was that?" I asked innocently.

She punched me in the gut. Ow...

"Okay, guys, let's get going," I said, trying to sound confident, though I wasn't, especially knowing who we were facing.

Soon, we were racing through the dark sky on pegasi at speeds which would've given my mother a heart attack. It was awesome - speed and exhilaration normally come together for me. And they're normally directly proportionate - more the speed, more the exhilaration. It was fun - we talked, joked, laughed, took junk food breaks. Until...

_Um... B-Boss?_ Blackjack said. _C-Can we t-t-take a... a d-doughnut break?_

"Blackjack!" I chided. "We took a doughnut break something like thirty minutes ago! You can't be hungry _or_ tired already... And you definitely can't be sleepy... And you're stammering... Blackjack, what's wrong?"

_Oh no... no... NO! Aaaaahhh! U-U-U-U-Uncle Scar! Help!_

That was when things started going wrong. Blackjack started freaking out - he started flapping his wings madly and running around in circles. Then I noticed that even Guido and Porkpie were acting like Blackjack. Beckendorf was nearly falling off Guido. Annabeth was hanging onto Porkpie's tail. They were both shouting their lungs out. It was horrifying.

"Go down, Blackjack!" I shouted. "Calm down and descend! NOW!"

Thankfully, Blackjack understood.

"Guido! Porkpie! You, too!"

They descended and finally landed. Then things became downright haywire.

I went to see Annabeth, who lay on the ground a little way off, shivering. She was pale as a vampire and even a little green. Her face was clammy with perspiration.

"Are you okay?"

I laid **(A/N - is laid the right word?)** her down on my lap and sprinkled some water on her face. Then I fed her some ambrosia. I cradled her face in my hands while she recovered. Annabeth had nearly died. She was _this _close. I'd lost her once already. And I did _not_ have the energy to bear the pain if I lost her again.

I found myself staring at her. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Are you alright?"

"I-I think so. Help me up, will you?"

That was when she realised that she was on my lap. We both blushed furiously. I put her on the ground, got up and helped her up.

"Where's Beckendorf?" she asked.

I realised that I'd forgotten all about Beckendorf. I felt rotten. How could I?

I looked around and spotted him a few feet away. I rushed to him and gave him some ambrosia. Soon, all of us were on our feet, staring with horror at the scene in front of us - three very, very crazy pegasi wreaking havoc.

Guido had managed to upturn a hot-dog cart. He had a bottle in his muzzle and was squirting terrified lortals with mustard sauce. Porkpie was kicking every unfortunate thing (or person) he saw. Blackjack was flapping his wings maniacally, running around in circles and shouting for all he was worth about mice, Uncle Scars and pretty barbie dolls.

"Percy, what's happening?" Beckendorf was clearly freaked out.

"No clue."

"Control them, Seaweed Brain! Calm them down!" Annabeth shreiked.

"Can't! Don't know why, but I'm not able to!"

"Percy, what are they thinking about?" I could almost _see_ Annabeth's brain racing at a million miles an hour.

"Um... Blackjack is yelling like crazy about mice, Uncle Scars and pretty barbie dolls.

"Is Blackjack scared of mice?"

"Terrified."

"Who's Uncle Scar?" Beckendorf asked.

"I reckon Luke," I said, sort of bitterly. I glanced at Annabeth. She looked fine, thank the gods. That either meant she was getting over Luke, or she was too distracted by whatever had possessed the pegasi. I was hoping it was the first one.

"Makes sense," Beckendorf said.

"But what's happening?"

"Taraxippi," Annabeth answered.

"Terra-what?"

"_Taraxippi_. They're ghosts which freak horses out. They trigger the horses' worst fears, bring into spotlight the horses' most scary nightmares. "

"So my horses are possessed?"

"Not possessed, just scared."

I uncapped Riptide. "How do we make them go away?"

"You need to dig a pit and pour some nectar into it. Then you recite a prayer to Hades. The ghosts will get sucked into the pit and then into the Underworld."

We quickly dug up a hole small pit. Beckendorf poured some nectar into it and Annabeth recited some sort of prayer. It reminded me a lot of Nico at Geryon's ranch... That in turn reminded me of Nico's plan... I shuddered and decided not to think about it.

Nothing changed for a minute or two. And then wind started gushing around us, swirling into the pit, like air being sucked into a vacuum. And then it suddenly stopped with a swoosh. Everything became still for a moment. Nothing moved, not even the air. Everything was still and quiet and eerie. Then suddenly the spell broke and Nature continued its hustle-bustle. The pegasi trotted towards us like nothing had happened.

_Boss? What just happened? Why are we on land? _Blackjack inquired.

"Long story," I replied. "But first we need to find a place to camp. And where on Earth are we?"

"Lincoln," Beckendorf answered. "I used to live two streets away until my mom died and I found Matt. I think we can camp there, if you don't mind roaches or rats. Or spiders," he added. **(A/N - Matt is his satyr.)**

"No way!" Annabeth shrieked.

"Let's just camp outside the city," I suggested.

"Okay."

**Please please review. *grovelling on my knees* I'm looking for ways to improve my writing. Thanks!**


	3. Our Friend Comes To The Rescue

**A/N :- Here's the third chapter of Apollo Loses His Car Keys. Hope you like it. Please R&R!**

And, of course, I _had_ to get a dream.

In my dream, I was in a humongous room. The room was dark, except for some kind of golden glow coming from some pockets of the room. I realised that the glow was because of fire. And metal. Celestial bronze, to be specific.

There were huge, burly creatures at each of the many fires, working on the celestial bronze. My dream zoomed in, and I realised that the creatures were Cyclopes making weapons. But what shocked me was that I could recognise one of the Cyclopes - he was my brother, Tyson. He was shivering violently, struggling to keep the fire burning, and trying to craft the weapon as fast as possible, before the fire could stop burning. I noticed that the other Cyclopes were having the same problem. Then it suddenly dawned on me - my dream was showing me Dad's forges at Atlantis. But why was everyone shivering? Before I could figure it out, my dream shifted.

I was in a very crowded, very noisy place. There were fat women selling vegetables and flowers and other such things. And there were other fat women who were arguing loudly with the shopkeepers, waving the carrots in the air, and basically acting completely mental. But suddenly the whole scene changed. Helios swaggered in like he owned all the carrots and tomatoes in the stalls. Everything less than a metre near him burnt up until all that was left was ash, even humans. But once he walked past, it would turn into what it originally was again. Everyone who wasn't near Helios just gaped at him in awe at first. Then every fat woman at once started running around, banging on their chests and shouting something like, "Ayyo Raama Krishna Srihari! Kaapaadappo! Ayyo! Srikantheshwara! Yenaagtidyappo!" **(A/N :- I'll explain later.)**

Helios laughed evilly. I noticed that those two servants of Helios' were with him.

"It's happening as planned, my lord," one of the servants said. "Percy Jackson and his puny little friends are on their way."

"Good, good," Helios said. "And what about the Brahma Rakshasas? Have you managed them?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Perfect. And the - "

I woke up with an extremely painful bonk on my head.

"_**OW!**_" I shouted. "Beckendorf! What in Atlantis was that for?"

"HUH?" Beckendorf jumped. "What? What happened?" He looked around, then looked at me with a confused look on his face. "Why did you shout like that? You woke me up!" he whined.

"So that wasn't you?" I asked.

"What wasn't me?"

I ignored him as I searched around me. My hands stumble across a golden box. It was intricately carved with some kind of fat design with fat circles and mango-shaped motifs. I opened it, and what I saw inside puzzled me so much, I just stared at it like an idiot.

"What is it?" Beckendorf asked curiously. "A picture of Annabeth?"

I was too distracted by the object inside to bother about Beckendorf's stupid comment. The object was... a lump of rock. A lump of solid, black granite. There was a flat surface, shaped somewhat like a raindrop in a pre-schooler's drawing. And rising from the surface was some kind of small pillar, round at the end. The rain-drop surface had a granite pedestal below it. And in the middle of the rounded, top pillar were three white lines, parallel to each other. And there was a red dot right in the middle of the white line in the middle. Beckendorf and I just examined it for sometime.

"Hey, Beckendorf?" I asked.

"Yeah?" He responded.

"When did you stoop, from working with metal, to working with rock?" **(A/N :- That sounds more like types of music.)**

"This isn't mine."

"O... Kay..." We were both silent for sometime.

"Annabeth," we said in unison.

"Reporting for duty," Speak of the devil, and the devil is here. Okay, scratch that, not devil.

Annabeth entered our tent.

"So, why do you need me?" Annabeth sounded like she was working to sound cheerful.

But I couldn't be worried about that just then - I could handle only one worry at a time. I handed her the... thing. I wasn't sure what it was, but apparently, it was very important. Her eyes widened and she gasped, "Oh, my."

"Any clue what it is?" Beckendorf asked.

Annabeth recovered, and said, "Uh... no. Why? What is it? How did it come? Did it just appear?" Clearly, Annabeth was lying. But I didn't want to push her. She would probably tell us when it was time to.

"Yeah, well," I grumbled. "It fell on my head, in this box, and woke me up."

Annabeth just stared at the box for some time, like she was expecting some monster to pop out of it, while we stared at her in anticipation. "Let's not worry about it for now," she decided after some time. "We'll know what this means in a while. But I can tell you guys that we're in quite a bit of trouble."

On that happy note, we left for Vellore City on pegasi. On the way, I told the others about my dreams. It was then that Annabeth gave up on her pretense. She was completely silent for the next three to four hours, not saying a single word.

I couldn't remember the name of those creatures Helios had mentioned, which made things worse. I talked a little with Beckendorf, but not much. I was thinking about my dream about Tyson. Why was he shivering like that, so badly?

Then it suddenly occured why. There was no sun over the Atlantic Ocean. So no heat.

And I found this thing about Helios' "plan" really disturbing. I knew for sure that we were part of it. But how? In the back of my mind, I could sense Blackjack getting worried about me, and even getting restless. But I wasn't bothered enough to solve that problem. Finally, Blackjack couldn't seem to take it anymore.

_Okay, Boss,_ Blackjack pulled me out of my reverie. _In a way, you're acting scarier than Barbie Girl. What's wrong?_

"Speaking of which, who's Barbie Girl?" I changed the subject.

_That's nothing to you, Boss. _

"Of course it is. I'm your boss, remember?" I grimaced when I reminded him, and myself, of that.

_Whatever, Boss. I'm not telling you. _

"Why not? Is she, like, your girlfriend or something?"

_NO!_

"Then tell me!"

After some persuading, and some pleading, Blackjack said, _It's that scary make-up girl with the whip and the plastic smile. _

"Who? Silena?" I asked.

_Whatever. Silena is too innocent a name for that lady. She's evil, I tell you. She's a big control freak. And she's OCD. That girl, don't go near her unless you're suicidal, which I'm hoping you're not. _

I burst out laughing. Once I recovered, I said, "Hey, Beckendorf! You should probably change your mind about asking Silena to the fireworks. Blackjack says she's a control freak and she's OCD!" I had to dodge a nut-and-bolt. I tried imagining huge, intimidating Beckendorf cowering in front of petite, little Silena and couldn't stop laughing for the next fifteen minutes.

Things were normal for the next couple of hours. At least, as normal as it could get with Annabeth acting that weird. We reached L.A before we even knew it. We sent the pegasi back to camp. Then we hailed a cab and requested the driver to drive us to the beach.

The drive to the beach was really awkward. An uneasy feeling hung in the air. There was definitely something weird about it. Annabeth had become very, very frighteningly jittery and was sweating like a pig. Before I could put my finger on exactly _what_ was wrong with the cab, ropes started growing out the seats and tying **(A/N :- Spelling?)** our limbs to the seats. The driver turned smiled evilly. Her smile exposed fangs. And at once I knew what was going on.

"E-E-Empousa!" I stammered.

"Ugh! You just made a huge mistake, kid. I _hate_ being mistaken for those insufferable servants of Hecate's. So now I'm just angrier. Your death will be more painful, boy. Congrats!"

"You're Lamia, the demoness who feeds on children," Annabeth said, terror making her voice quiver, while straining against the ropes.

"Oh, it's no use fighting 'em, hon. Those ropes were designed by Procrustes."

"_**WHAT?"**_ Annabeth and I yelled together."DESIGNED BY **WHOM**?"

"Oh, I know, he's an old friend of yours. In fact, he wanted to be here for the premiere himself. But... the business has been keeping him busy. So he had to settle for a video." She sighed dramatically.

I strained so that I could reach Riptide, but failed miserably. Now the seats were already starting to stretch us.

"Beckendorf, any ideas?" I asked.

"None," he answered, while tugging at the ropes.

That was when some really horrible music cut through the air. And never in my life had I ever been gladder of such ear-splitting music than I was then.

"Τι στο διάολο?" Lamia cursed in Ancient Greek.

"Grover!" Annabeth said.

If Grover heard Annabeth, he didn't react. He just continued playing his music. Soon, I realised what he was doing - he was trying to control the ropes. The ropes were made of jute. So that should probably be within his power. If he could control wooden pencils, he could control jute ropes, right?

Miraculously, the ropes started loosening. Within no time, the ropes were undone. The three of us jumped up and pulled out our weapons. Now it was Princess Lame-ia's turn to be scared. She was wise to be scared - one against four? Her odds of winning weren't much.

Beckendorf and I attacked at once, while Annabeth wore her Yankees cap and attacked from somewhere else. In the background, I could hear Grover playing some different tune on his reed pipes. All that Lamia was equipped with was a Celestial bronze knife.

In unison, Beckendorf and I went on offense by slashing. But she only cowered and started running away. So, apparently, she was a horrible fighter. Or she was trying to trick us into chasing her, so that she and her fellow vampires could finish us off. If it was the second plan, she failed badly, because Grover's music caused every plant or vine near Lamia to wrap around her feet. She fell down on her face, and vines started growing around her hands. Once the vines were firm, Grover willed them to strech Lamia. Lamia was stretched and she shrieked loudly. When she was near tearing point, I got impatient and cut her into two with Riptide.

Then the three of us males put our weapons inside. Annabeth, still invisible, must have tackled Grover with a bear hug, because he stumbled back and nearly fell. He whipped Annabeth's cap off her head and said, "Glad to see you, too, Annabeth."

"Idiot!" Annabeth whacked him on the head.

After Beckendorf shook hands with Grover and I high-fived him, his expression became confused. "What're you guys doing in L.A?" he asked.

"What're _you_ doing here?" I backfired.

"Y'know, spreading the news... About Pan... And you?"

We told him about Helios and our quest.

"Even I'm coming," He said, determination unmistakable on his face.

"Why?" Beckendorf asked. "I mean, I'm okay with it, and all, but why do you want to come so badly?"

"Beckendorf, the quest you're going on isn't a piece of cake," Grover told him. "I want to help. Also... I'll bet the nature spirits are dying of the heat there. They're gonna need me."

"Thanks, G-man," I said. "This means a lot to us."

We walked the rest of the journey to the beach because we were too paranoid to take a cab. Especially Annabeth. I was really starting to worry if Annabeth was having some nervous breakdown or something. When we reached the beach, I whistled as loudly as I could. Much as I wanted it, Rainbow and his friends couldn't come because they lived in the Atlantic Ocean. So I had to settle for some hippocampi who I didn't know. But they weren't too bad. Once we were all settled down on our hippocampi, I dived into the ocean and tried calling Dad.

"Hey, Dad? Dad! Percy here! Can you hear me? Father!" I shouted.

_Percy! What in the name of Zeus are you making so much noise for?_

"Oh. Sorry, Dad. I wasn't sure if you could hear me from the Pacific," I apologised.

_Okay... So, why did you call me?_

"Oh. Uh, Dad, I need you to do me a favour."

_Couldn't you find a better time to ask me of favours? _Poseidon grumbled. _As it is, I'm fading rapidly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It's only a matter of time before I completely disappear._

"Precisely why you should help me out this once."

_What do you want me to do? _he asked.

"I need you to deliver me and my friends across the Pacific as fast as possible."

_And why should I do that?_

"Because it will help if we reach India before you're completely evaporated. We're on a quest to get Apollo's car keys back."

He seemed to consider this. _Do you need help across the Indian Ocean, too?_

"That would be great."

_Okay, then. I am not left with much energy, but I shall try my best. _

"Thanks, Dad! You're the best!"

_Best of luck, my son. Make me proud again. And save me. _

"Will do."

**A/N :- Like it? Hate it? Review to tell me. I'm desperate for tips. Please please please give me some. **

**And, yeah... About that fat-women-banging-on-their-chest thing... That's how uneducated women in South Indian villages act when something bad happens. So... yeah. **

**And those things those fat women were shouting, it wasn't Tamil, because I don't know Tamil. But I speak Kannada, so I just wrote it. **

**Anyhow, thanks for reading! Please review! **


	4. IMPORTANT PLEASE READ

Hey, guys! Long time, no see! For those who've been following this story, I'm sorry I haven't updated. The reason is because I've lost interest. So if anyone wants to continue, please feel welcome. This story is yours. For more details, please PM me. Thank you.

- Chikni Chameli The Second


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